


Common Knowledge

by Pinkshiori



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst and Fluff, Bad Parent Lillian Luthor, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Game Night, Lena Luthor Needs a Hug, Oblivious Pining, background sanvers, supergirl reveal, tw : child abuse, tw : food, tw : food as a source of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 10:00:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16365779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pinkshiori/pseuds/Pinkshiori
Summary: Lena is a vegetarian and Kara is a human trash compactor. Also Lena is not used to people caring for her. Set somewhere in season two, Maggie is there.





	Common Knowledge

 

Lena Luthor is a vegetarian. She will say it is about not taking more lives than necessary and the guilt by proxy everyone expects from her and all that stuff that sound like good PR. But truth is meat simply disgusts her. The idea alone of putting something dead in her mouth makes her queasy and has for a very long time.

It started when she was about ten. Suddenly at dinner she looked at her plate and found the chunks of (top quality South American) beef floating in her plate positively revulsing. She picked at her plate and ate around it and made a vow to never eat any dead animal ever again. She managed to keep to it for a good fifteen minutes before Lillian took notice and berated her for being a fussy eater. Luthors don't pick at their food. It's rude and unbecoming.

So she got sent to the kitchen to finish her dinner alone with the maid. which she didn't mind, really, she kind of liked Sarah, she was almost nice at times and didn't tell on her when she found her retching in the bathroom later that night.

When she tried to explain she was met with a scoff and a scold, enough with this hippie nonsense already, what wouldn't you do for attention? You're such a troublesome child. One would think you'd show more gratitude than that. Even Lex wouldn't understand because, come on, Lee, why would you even care? It's not as if a bunch of animals mattered, I swear you're way too sensitive sometimes.

And maybe they were right. Lena had no business being ungrateful for all the things they gave her, including the food so many children would be happy to have in her stead. Who was she to pretend disrupting their habits like that? After all the Luthors did love their meat and going vegetarian wasn't a fashionable trend yet. In the summer they would hold those meat-only barbecue charity events she wasn't allowed to skip. If they weren't her family she would have thought they did this specifically to spite and torture her but she knew better. So she sucked it up and did her best to ignore the way her stomach heaved with every bite.

The badgering eventually stopped when she turned up all grown up and curvy. Suddenly Lillian was very okay with her turning down food. Although Lillian never understood how she could still remain so fat with how little she ate and, really Lena, your mother may have been a cow but that doesn't mean you have to let your genetics shame my family, you ought to put in a lot more effort than that.

Then Lena broke free from the Luthor household - well, she got sent away to Europe, but same difference, right - and got to be in charge of her own meals. She got to travel too, from the Uk where every shabbiest pub offers a vegetarian variant of their grub and food companies use propper labeling, to Belgium with its own local weekly Veggie holiday. Then to Sweden, Germany and Israel, and of course, India her favorite one food-wise. And she only got to have to suffer through the two or three mandatory Luthor dinners a year.

As CEO of L-Corp, she was allowed to change the menu when it didn't suit her, to stick to vegetarian or even strickly vegan when she felt like it. Perks of being at the head of a humongous fortune and not caring what anyone thought of her, she could buy every single one of them out of their houses anyway.

Also, ordering her own food when invited to an event was the ultimate power move. One that Lillian Luthor would be proud of. Probably. Maybe. It's hard to know for sure what Lillian Luthor would be proud of her for.

The point is it has been years and she never went back.

So when Kara Danvers offers her a potsticker she doesn't know what to do.

It is pork, she know it is, she placed the order herself. Chinese take-out is the best. It has so many veggetable or tofu options that she can stick to her diet without bringing attention onto it. If she could Lena would very much like not to bring anyone's attention onto herself ever again, especially not Kara Danvers's and especially not onto one of her quirks. Also, Lena Luthor won't lie, Kara Danvers' ability to inhale three servings of potstickers under fifteen minutes truly is a thing of beauty.

But today Kara decided to share and if there's something Lena learned from all their lunch dates so far it that Kara doesn't share food.

Those are friends lunch dates, of course, not date lunch dates. Not that Lena isn't gay, she is, very much so and very publicly so - which surprisingly never bothered the Luthors that much, probably because the one who could suffer the most from it was herself. Also it meant there would be no husband to take the Luthor's fortune away from the name. So Lena is gay and Kara is gorgeous, but Kara is also the first person in Lena's life to ever called her a friend and it's enough of a miracle in itself that she doesn't want to jinx it by reading anything more in it than there actually is.

Anyway, Kara doesn't share food but there she is waving a potsticker in Lena's face with her expertly held chopsticks. It is an honor and a priviledge and Lena is not sure how to turn it down.

"It's amazing, Lena, have one I swear it's the best thing I've ever put in my mouth." Kara's cheeks are bulging from the mouthful of potstickers she hasn't finished chewing in her excitement to share and Lena doesn't know what to answer to that.

"I..." she starts.

Kara quickly swallows and cuts her off. "You're always having those boring veggies! I promise you'll enjoy this. Beside you really don't need to worry, you have like a perfect body and one potsticker won't ruin it. I mean you're already crazy beautiful." She says.

So Kara thinks she's watching her weight. Great. Well she is, she always is, but she cannot afford to let Kara see her as weight-obsessed shallow. So Lena leans in and catches the offered potsticker between her teeth.

The dough is both crispy and soft and slightly salty and the filling melts into her mouth in a burst of flavours. The taste of meat is almost hidden under the mix of vegetables and spices it had been marinated with and the texture is closer to shredded tofu than the chops she remembers choking on. It really is good and Lena thinks that meat or not meat she could bear to eat a few more if only for Kara's happy victorious smile.

"'s good," she declares after swallowing her of bit and Kara beams. "See," she says.

* * *

Lunch dates turn into game night and Lena gets to meet Kara's friends and sister. There is no denying her original anxiety about meeting them at first, but with Kara she has learned to go with the flow a long time ago.

James, she finds out, is like a male version of Kara, in that happy human golden retriever way, open and easy to talk to and if she was interested in men general she could easily see something happening between them. Winn who like her shares his name with a known serial killer, is almost twice the nerd she is, which is a lot to say when she studies applied robotics for fun in her down time, and matches her word for word in their intellectual debates. And so is Alex, Kara's sister. Alex who takes a little more time to warm up to her but with whom she ends up sharing a feeling of quiet comradery, doctor to doctor, lesbian to lesbian (not that they really speak about it, but it is so obvious that Lena can only assume Alex is aware of it, or at least she hopes she is, for her sake.)

Somehow Kara managed to surround herself with geniuses and Lena can only dream about what they could achieve if she could just get them to quit their day job for L-Corp.

Lena ends up on Kara's worn down couch squished between Kara and her friends and with them she cries in front of The Notebook, gets into endless debates over the best Hogwarts house (obviously Ravenclaw and everyone should accept that already), wrecks them at Monopoly and gets her ass beaten at Mario Kart, and she only has to force herself to eat peperroni once in a while because there's so many times one can order vegetarian pizza without sounding suspicious.

It is warm and comfortable and for the first time Lean feels like she can let a go a little, like she is among people who understand and trust her.

Well there's the fact that they all seem to know that Kara is Supergirl and don't look like they are planning on letting her in on this anytime soon. And, yes, Lena knows because, come on, Kara's disguise is literally glasses and a different hairstyle and maybe if Lena had told Clark she figured out all about him in fifth grade he would have told Kara this would never work. Not that Lena holds that secret against Kara and her friends. After all she is a Luthor and she wouldn't trust herself with it either. The only thing she regrets is all the missed opportunities for Supergirl related puns and her tongue has scars from biting on it to stop herself from blurting one out.

So other than that she's discovering what it feels like to have friends and it is not unpleasant.

It is not unpleasant except for one little thing, a detail really but that is quickly turning into a bigger problem than she expected. Without any other friendship to compare with she just assumed that whatever she had with Kara was only regular friendship and ascribed her giddiness to the novelty of it all. Now with each night of comfortable familiarity and takeout it gets harder to pretend her feelings for Kara are of a strictly platonic nature.

Take Alex for example, she's beautiful, smart, and queer but Lena can't imagine there being anything between them other than having each other's back and wingmaning from time to time - well maybe a one night stand here and there because Lena has eyes and she's only human - unlike with Kara.

With Kara it is missed warmth whenever she gets up to get more food, late night texts and early morning coffee because how else is a good day supposed to start? It's domesticity and want, daydreams of a shared house and a couple of dogs and sinful fantasies sometimes involving superforce sometimes not.

But Lena has turned ignoring her own wants and urges into an art form a long time ago, so she does what comes naturally and sticks to the status quo. Just like she pretends not to notice the identical scars on her friend's forehead and National City's resident superhero's, or how said friend is conveniently never more than a few minutes away from her wherever she is, she pretends there's no feelings other than friendship, no missing her the moment they separate and certainly no longing. Unlike Kara Danvers, Lena Luthor is good at pretending. It comes with the name. If she can't lie to herself anymore at least she can keep her friends (?!) in the dark.

It works until Alex finally brings a girl to game night and Lena is happy her gay awakening wasn't as painful as she thought it would be. Kara is a little confused but Maggie is awesome and wins everyone's heart with one single dig at Alex's pool skills.

Also Maggie is a vegan.

"Ugh! Rabbit food! Alex, how can you condone that?" Kara exclaims dramatically at Maggie's vegan pizza "At least we can still appreciate actual food!" she adds gesturing to the other people in the room. Whatever comment Lena was about to make about her shared love of vegan cheese dies in her throat. She picks up a slice of meat lovers pizza and finishes it off with gusto as Kara shares a smile with her. Playful banter or not she wouldn't want to disappoint Kara, not on something so trivial as food.

Lena also spends the rest of her night twisting and turning in bed trying to ignore the way her stomach churns and hurts at the unfamiliar food. But Kara doesn't need to know that either.

* * *

Two days later, as per tradition, Kara announces that she is dropping by L-Corp with their lunch and Lena braces herself for whatever junk food abomination Kara has gone with this time, hoping there will at least be a few fries or mozzarella sticks she could nibble on while watching Kara destroy an everything burger. (It is unnecessary, there always are fries for Lena, she never saw Kara forget.) Only this time the bags (yes, plural) that Kara drops on Lena's desk are not from their usual dinner, nor are they from Noonan or any of the pizza places Kara loves so much. They are from Riley's, one of the best vegan deli in National City and Lena's favorite.

"Kara?" Lena asks with a confused frown when Kara releases her from her usual hello hug - oh God that it lasted forever.

"What?" Kara says with a teasing smile, "I can't enjoy delicious deli food when I want it?"

"Oh, okay," Lena says, unsure if she feels relieved or disappointed that Kara did not go out of her way to bring her her favorite. "Thank you for the food. It's one of my favorite place," she says keeping her tone neutral.

"I know." Kara says.

Lena gives her another confused look, she doesn't remember telling Kara about it.

"I'm sorry for forcing my tastes on you all this time, I didn't know you didn't like meat."Kara says and the apology sounds sincere even though Lena doesn't understand what she is apologizing for.

"That's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me," Lena says pointing at the food."

Kara narrows her eyes at that and shakes her head in disappointment. "You deserves so much more than they made you believe you do."

"How did you find out?" Lena asks, hoping Kara would not hate her for hiding something from her.

"Well," Kara starts. "After you left last Friday Maggie cornered me in the kitchen and all but started yelling at me and then she forced me to google you to prove her point which I had never done before but then I found out."

"You never googled me before?" Lena asks surprised, L-Corp has a whole team dedicated to investigating any people she as much as interact with, force of habit.

"No, the first time I wanted to meet you without any biased opinion and after that you became my friend so why would I need to google you when I can ask you directly," Kara started rambling. "But that's beside the point. Why didn't you tell me you were a vegetarian? I would have made sure to get you your favorite more often."

Lena shrugs, realizing she doesn't really have an answer. "I didn't want to make you feel like you had to go out of your way to accommodate me," she says quietly. Then she let out a small half snort half chuckle as she look at the food Kara most probably flew across town to get for her. So much for not being a burden.

Before she can open her mouth again to apologize Kara cuts her off. "That's nonsense! Maggie's full on vegan and no one feels that way about that about her. Why would we for you."

"She's your sister's girlfriend--" Lena starts.

"Well you're my--" Kara starts before catching herself. "You're important to me."

"I didn't want you to think I wasn't enjoying our time together," Lena says as if that explained everything. "That I was unhappy in any way."

"But you were," Kara says, "Oh, Lena. Don't you realize it's a two way thing? I can adapt too and respect what you want and don't."

"But I... what if..."

Kara lets out a frustrated sigh and takes one step forward and suddenly her hands are cupping Lena's face and it's both too much an everything Lena has ever wished for. "Why are you so afraid of letting people see you for how you really are?" Kara asks softly. "You can't spend your life hiding your true self to make people see what they want to see."

Of course Kara would see what no one else ever does. that under the expensive suits and power stances - years of lessons and training - Lena is only desperate to please, to get people to like her even a tiny bit. Even if it meant losing herself in the process. She allows herself to feel and lean into Kara's touch. For a few seconds not more, then she takes a step back and looks at her friend.

"So, does that mean you're gonna take your own advice then?" she says, straining to keep her tone light. It is certainly not how she wanted this conversation to go, but it is the only thing she finds to deflect the current focus on her.

"What do you mean?" Kara asks.

Lena gives her a pointed look and gesture at the take out bag on the table. "Riley's never opens before 12 and it's barely quarter past."

Kara gives an unconvincing shrug. "Well, they were very quick," she tries.

"It's at least 25 minutes from here by any means of transportation. Human transportation," Lena adds and at least Kara this time has the decency to stay silent. "Did you fly here on a bus this time too?" Lena asks as she reaches for Kara's glasses and gently takes them off.

And here is Supergirl in Kara's ponytail and pastel clothes, looking at her feet and blushing like mad and it is both so uncanny and familiar and cute and sexy and everything at once Lena can only stare and bite her lower lip.

"I'm sorry," Kara says, "I wanted to tell you but..."

"It's okay," Lena says, cutting her off. "My brother..."

"Has nothing to do with it!" Kara protests with surprising force. "It's just that I liked being only Kara with you, being able to be only Kara..."

Of course Kara would - wait what? "Your friends do know you as..." Lena starts.

"As Kara," Kara says, "but they also know Supergirl and they expect me to be her. But the truth is I'm not Supergirl, I'm not like Superman. I'm not strong and confident and self-assured. I always always have to watch my strength all the time and sometimes I slip up." Kara says. "And I'm terrible with social cues and because I didn't grow up with them and I had to learn everything from scratch at thirteen. I don't understand most jokes and puns because I'm always speaking a foreign language and," She takes her glasses from Lena's hands and puts them back on, "those are lead-lined so I don't have to be overwhelmed by every tiniest sound around."

And Lena feels terrible that she never saw any of this, that she never stopped to think what it meant for Kara to be an alien in a world of humans, that she was such a crappy friend to the girl she claimed to care about.

"So the truth is I am clumsy and inadequate and you saw that and wanted to spend time with me as Kara anyway and I liked that and didn't want to let go of that," Kara explains, then stops and sighs, "except that it probably wasn't true since you knew anyway."

Lena's mind is stil too busy computing the whole conversation to give and answer so Kara goes on. "Also, you know how Supergirl is always under the public's eye and everything I do I have to share with the world. You and I, I didn't have to," she says, " and I liked that too," she adds softly.

"I like Kara Danvers!" Lena blurts out. "I mean, I've always known about Supergirl," she says, grabbing Kara's hand in her now free ones. "But Kara Danvers was my friends first and I always wanted to spend time with Kara. With you as her, I mean."

They hold each other's gaze for a few seconds before Kara starts ducking her head and starts.

"So, there was something else that came up on that google search..."

"Oh," Lena says softly, when she realizes what else they have never openly talked about and she lets go of Kara's hand. "That...".

"Why did you never tell me" Kara asks.

"I thought it was common knowledge." Lena says. "I didn't think there was anything to tell."

Kara ponders her words for a moment. "Fair enough," she then says in a breath. "Alex could have used to have you, though, you know, when the whole thing with Maggie started and she was freaking out."

"Alex, yes," Lena says, a little disappointed without really knowing why, it is not as if anything had changed between them, had to change. "I'll try to be a better lesbian buddy for her from now on."

"Yeah, for Alex."

"Alex, yeah."

Awkward silence settles between them and it is strange because silences aren't supposed to be awkward with Kara and it only makes Lena acutely aware that she hasn't moved away is still standing close enough to see the smudges on her not-so-useless glasses and the details of her forehead scar.

Then Kara breaks the silence and says something Lena would never have imagined hearing. "So," she starts a little hesitantly, "Would you like to, would you be interested in having dinner? With me?" she asks. "As a, as a date," she adds before Lena's brain can go into overdrive.

Well the whole day is starting to feel more and more like a dream and might as well be one so Lena does what appears the most logical thing to do and instead of answering leans in to kiss Kara Danvers and when Kara kisses back it feels like everything falls into places and she wishes it didn't have to end.

"To be honest, no." Lena says when she pulls away and she can see Kara smile drop ever slightly but she puts her hand on her cheek and continues. "I don't think I want to date you. I don't want to go through the awkward fancy dinners and dancing around each other and waiting a certain amount of time and all the other hoops with you. Not when I already know how beautiful you are inside out and how you are everything I ever wanted and not when I already saw you fit a whole pizza slice in your mouth wearing a Beebo t-shirt and sweats. I don't want to date you but I want to be with you in every ways." she says. "If you'll have me," she adds timidly, realizing the moment the words left her mouth that it was probably way too much too soon.

"Oh thanks Rao!" Lena hears Kara exclaim and suddenly her arms are full of Kara and Kara's hands are on her hips and her lips are on hers again and she is pretty sure they are hovering above the floor. "I don't want to date you either." Kara exhales as they come down. "So what now?" she asks her arms still around Lena.

"Well, now we eat that delicious food that you flew all the way across the city for. Then you go back to CatCo or wherever you need to be. Then tonight you pick me up from work, since I know you can be here in no time and you take me back to your place because your couch is the comfiest and we order from Noonan's and we finish The Good Place."

"So nothing changes."

"Not nothing," Lena says before leaning back in to kiss her again, because she can. "Maybe I won't pretend I'm falling asleep to snuggle with you."

"Ah, and I won't pretend to not notice and I'll snuggle back without being afraid you'll freak out when you wake up."

"Deal."

"Just promise me one thing, though." Kara asks and Lena raises one eyebrow in answer. "Never offer me vegan ice cream. Maggie forced me to try once and it was foul!"

Lena laughs and kisses Kara's shoulder. "Actually, I'm right there with you on that one."

**Author's Note:**

> Finally I finished this one that wouldn't leave me alone.  
> I'm mostly vegetarian but you will pry potstickers from my cold dead hands, also keep vegan ice cream far away from me, that stuff is a crime against humanity in itself, I said what I said.


End file.
